#950538 by Fuzzy14
22 May 2019, 17:09
2A + 3 kids off to Orlando for Christmas

Now if I was travelling alone a 1h25m transfer at Gatwick wouldn’t be an issue, indeed I’d have time to fit in a couple of pints along the way. With kids there’s just that extra unknown factor, they’d had a decent breakfast but probably wouldn’t be getting food on the plane anytime soon. As usual, the domestic flight arrived at the international stand and we had to get bussed back to the terminal, adding to the transfer time. Unfortunately, there isn’t the option to stay airside at Gatwick so had to leave the arrivals and walk straight back into the busy security queue. Once through security we headed straight for the gate, previously it was the circular gates but this time it was the very very end of the long straight one. The boys enjoyed the moving walkways, arriving at 1145 for the 1230 flight that had just commenced boarding.

We left it a while for the others to pile on to minimise the kids time on the plane, only once the queue had gone down we boarded a relatively full G-VIIY, one of the last on at 1210. The plane was as busy as I expected, and was in good condition despite being one of the last still to be refurbished (still in 3-3-3 seating.) We hadn’t pre-booked seats but did online check-in 24 hours previously.

Curiously, it had already been upgraded with wifi (thought this got done along with the new seating) this was charged at £4.99 for an hour or £14.99 for the full flight at basic speeds. They also had a streaming option that started at £7.99 (for an hour I guess) and access to Netflix.

Pushed back relatively on time and joined a surprisingly short queue to take off on runway 27L.

We were sitting in seats EFGHJ so 5 across with the boys taking up the 3 nearest the window to give us some peace. There was plenty of chopping and changing through the flight when the youngest got fed up and wanted to play Uno or drafts. We’ve come a long way from him being 10 weeks old, we don’t see him for half the flight.

IFE
Decent selection of films, TV programs kids found enough to keep them entertained for a few hours. The TVs are long in the tooth now, screens too small and no USB charging but this will soon be changed. I can’t remember what I watched or how many times I was interrupted.

Food
I pre-booked children’s meals online for the younger two, the children’s meals were the usual poor quality, tomato pasta, carton of Ribena, dried fruit. The youngest ate some of his and the middle one picked at some of my beef stroganoff and the eldest barely touched his. As usual we had made some emergency ham sandwiches, unfortunately had left them in the fridge in the house so bought some in the airport Tesco! The eldest ate these. The wife had a sufficient number of wines.

Cabin Crew
Nothing that memorable but okay.

The flight touched down 1700 on time, we were reasonably quick off the plane but the customs hall was busy and there only seemed to be 3 members of staff on duty. We used the electronic passport machines however it marked my son’s passport as being expired (it had less than 6 months left, which is allowed for a UK passport) so we got the X and had to join the second queue which seemed to drag on a bit. Eventually made it through ok and onwards onto the new transit system and into the lovely new car hire garage which was a vast improvement on the old one.

So it took 2 hours from plane to car and with a quick stop at a McDonalds (now a tradition) was in Animal Kingdom Lodge by 2100. The next morning we went down to the pool at 9am but it didn’t open until 10 because it’s winter apparently. We were the only ones in the pool until 11.30…

Verdict: the plane journey was fine but was nothing to write home about, refurb will be welcome. Tampa much better than last time. However for 2 flights in the one day, leaving at 7.30am and arriving 2am UK time, it didn’t seem too long a journey and the kids were so good. It’s almost like I’m looking for an excuse not to pay for a Florida holiday, but the kids are so damn well behaved!

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